Brace Face
by caraez
Summary: James has never been more mortified in his life! Braces? On his beautiful teeth? R&R!


**A/N: This came to me when I got my braces just recently. I figured James would be mortified if he had them, and so this fic was born. Hmm.. I'm not sure it came out like I was hoping for, but please R&R anyways. **

**Disclaimer: It isn't mine, and will never be. Go JKR!**

Brace face

James walked onto the Hogwarts Express without yelling or laughing this year. He simply kept his mouth closed in a tight smile- so different than his usual toothy grin. Not many people noticed, because they were too busy saying good-bye to their friends and family and other people they wouldn't be seeing 'till the holidays. But his friends noticed. Soon after they did, they dragged him into an empty compartment and demanded to know what was wrong.

"Well?" Sirius stared at him with expectant eyes. James shook his head.

"You can't tell us? Why?" Remus asked gently.

"Did you go mute?" Peter shouted. James shook his head harder. Remus then had an idea, and taking out some spare parchment and a quill, handed it to James forcefully.

"_I can't open my mouth all year." _He wrote.

"Oh, why not?" Peter wondered.

"_I can't tell. Secret." _

"You'll have a hard time kissing girls, then." Sirius said with a short, barking laugh.

"_Oh, shut up. I can kiss with a closed mouth!"_

"Not too well, now, can you?"

Remus interrupted before the argument went further.

"You have to tell us sometime. Why not now? Better to get it over with."

James shook his head again.

"Prongs, I didn't want to do this, buddy, but…" Sirius nodded at James, and they both attacked him at the same time,

"OW!" shouted James, and then they saw what was bugging him.

"James, you got braces!" noted Peter.

"Thanks for reminding me."

Sirius burst out laughing.

"You think you can hide your braces all year? Somebody would have noticed sometime. After all, they _are_ bright red."

"It was my mother's idea." Complained James, "Why, why, why, why ME??"

"I don't know." Commented Sirius, "But, you need a new nickname. Prongs? More like Brace Face…"

James glared, then turned to Moony.

"'Cause you have an overbite." Said Remus matter – of- factly, " I had braces too, when I was seven."

"Well that's just fine and dandy," muttered James, "but I am officially fifteen and one month, and I am old enough to get a girlfriend but won't—because of THESE!"

"I'm sure you'll be fine, James. I had braces last year, remember? I wasn't made fun of... too much." Peter attempted to comfort James.

"That's real helpful."

"Maybe I can be!" piped up Sirius, "Maybe we can modify one of those makeup spells girls use- you know, to cover their freckles? And we could make it hide his braces!"

"Oh yeah, I really want some of that. Makeup for braces!"

"I'm sure It'll be fine. Here, have a Cauldron Cake." Peter shoved a slightly squished sweet into James's arm.

After he ate the cake, he felt a bit better, and began a conversation with Sirius about quidditch.

"I really think the Tornados--" James was saying before being inturrupted by Sirius.

"You got something in your teeth, mate." Sirius said.

"What? Where? What color?"

"All over. It's red and silver-"

"Oh... Hardy har har. Not funny."

"Oh, I'm just kidding. You'll be okay. Hey, here comes Lily now. I dare you to smile at her. She won't even notice, you'll see."

To James's horror, Remus supported this idea, and so he was thrown into the hallway and knocked into Lily. He smiled a guilty grin. Lily stared at him with shock for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"James Potter…." Gasped Lily between giggles, "With braces! Who… would have… thought!" her friends carefully guided her on to where ever they were heading.

"Sorry," Marlene apologized with a grin as they left, "She was hit by a cheering charm earlier. Though I have to admit it is pretty funny, with you being James Potter and all"

"She doesn't look at all sorry." muttered James to his friends, glaring at her smile.

"Relax. Everyone will get over it soon, you just wait." Remus said. But, then, as Lily doubled over into some fresh boughs of laughter down the hallway, he amended, "But maybe not too soon…"

**A/n: If you enjoyed it, I'd love to know why. If you didn't, I'd like to know why that too. Or if you were neutral, tell me how to make it better. I will take your comments into consideration for possibly editing this piece. Also, I may turn this into a series of one shots about the marauders if enough people like it. **


End file.
